Once inside I fully lifted the hood off the lantern, bathing the room in warm flickering light. I walked towards the table, flipping open one of the books at random. Code. I thought, seeing text scrawled across it in what looked like a language I’d never read before. That or a foreign language… Though they use the same characters and show no loanwords…

I tucked it into a small pack slung across my back, and started looking through the rest of the room. To the side lay parchment, quills and ink. I looked through them, seeking some kind of seal or similar. Despite the presence of a candle, I couldn’t find it. Would be too much to ask for I guess.

The rest of the room itself seemed empty, until I raised the lamp to illuminate the room properly. A map hung on the wall, pinned by nails at several corners. I stared at it for a moment. I could take it off… Bring it with me. I thought to myself.

[Having taken the ledgers, I do not understand why we are hesitating to take down a map.] Page noted dryly. I had to concede the point, drawing out one of my daggers I began to pry at the nails pinning the map to the wall. I jammed the pulled nails into the desk, had to keep track of them, didn’t want myself stepping on fallen nails after all. Who knew what diseases they might be carrying?

As I rolled up the parchment I heard talking coming from the room I’d entered from. “I swear I heard something from inside the room.” A man’s voice said.

“It’s probably nothing, we’ve just been staring at the walls so long our eyes are bleeding.” Another voice replied. “Eh, let’s check it out anyway, it’ll give us something to do.” Oh for… I thought. There wasn’t exactly anywhere I could hide. I drew my pick, if they came through I’d have little space to move and he’d have to be dropped in one strike.

The footsteps stopped outside. I readied the pick, shifting lightly on my feet. “Well I don’t see anything.” The second voice said. “You want to stick around and keep searching?” He asked.

“Nah, you’re probably right, just nerves and boredom. Think we should take a day off or something?” The first voice said.

“If we could I’d have done it already… Can’t go to the taverns, can’t go to the Mask… What the heck would we do? Knucklebones?” The second voice complained, as they left the room.

I breathed out a sigh of relief, flexing the pick once before replacing it into the sheath. Okay, let’s get out before they notice us again… I thought to myself, waiting for them to round a bend before pulling on the lever that opened the door again. I slipped out, this time making my way out of the window instead. I dropped onto the wall surrounding the building, waving my arms a little to balance.

Let’s never try that again… I thought to myself, sliding down to the street. I strode back to the inn, climbing in through an open window. Well… I don’t think anyone spotted me, so that’s good… I closed the window behind me, turning to draw out the shaper. Is this a good place to release them? I had to wonder, even as they underwent the final stages of maturation.

I rubbed at my eyes. I had one more day before they came to check in on me, I’d probably check the ledger myself. Had to admit I was curious. I tapped on the buttons again. “I wonder why he never streamlined the process…” I muttered aloud, the soul copy gave no response, which I suppose didn’t disappoint me. All it had done until now was point out the steps to me over and over again.

[The answer likely lies in the improvised nature of the contraption. Which makes it remarkable that he managed to get it to function in such a time.] Page remarked.

I nodded to myself. That’s true. In any case… I thought to myself, walking over to the bed. I should sleep. I’ll have more than enough time to deal with that in the morning if they don’t realize it’s missing… I stuck the bag under my bed, laying atop it and falling into slumber.

The next day comprised of long hours spent poring across the pages, getting Page to help me memorize the patterns and the content of each page. It was a substitution cipher, but nowhere near as simple as the shift ciphers I was familiar with as a child. Once in a while I would decode certain sections, only for the key to shift away to gibberish. Numbers would occasionally pop up in between, and it was there that Page managed to break it down.

[I think each number denotes a specific configuration…] Page observed. If we’re lucky it follows a certain fixed sequence with a rotating disc… [Perhaps it does… I’ve noticed something of a pattern to the key…] Page continued, running cryptographic software that had come part and parcel with him.

It’s kind of strange that you have the cryptographic software in the first place if you think about it. I thought. I guess I have Tirune and the others to thank for that though. I noted to myself. So I guess I’ll just take a nap and you can work in the background? Not like my brain can suss out patterns as quickly as you can…

[That would be amicable.] Page replied. [It shouldn’t be too long now.]

I didn’t like relying on it, it left me feeling useless. Unlike a computer it had a personality, and so I couldn’t even quite make myself feel better about using a tool. I shrugged off the thought, I hadn’t been proud of those thoughts when I’d had to ask friends for help. If they had known, would they have still helped me, even then? Too many things I didn’t know, that I hadn’t dared try to learn. I leaned up against the wall, staring out at the window.

Friends… that was a strange word to use sometimes, I had always been afraid to hold them too tightly lest they grow tired and break away. I suppose it was only proper that they leave because I didn’t hold onto them at all. I chuckled darkly to myself. In the end I wonder if she would be just another one of them, a passing ship.

Here… perhaps I was content, if the war ended, if there could be peace again, perhaps I could… stay? I shook my head. No. These people don’t know me, if I’m gone… they… well, I’ll just tell them I’ll be gone. That’s more than my family got. More to the point, I still needed to find the Adversary in time to prevent a world’s destruction. I had no choice but to hope that time moved slower there.

I raised my hand, throwing the dagger at the board I’d set up against the wall. It thudded into place, dead centre. I smiled faintly. Well I’m getting the hang of that at least. It’s always the lulls where I start to think too much. But better to think when I have the time, don’t get too caught up in the now that I can’t see ahead. I sighed. Still not a fan of the thoughts either way.

[I’m done.] Page said into my mind. [This doesn’t seem to be directly related to the bandits. It seems to be about smuggling of resources in a way to reduce taxes paid as well as the smuggling of luxury contraband.] Huh… well we’ll hand it off to them anyway, maybe they’ve a better idea of the bigger picture? It could well show them where to look next. [Maybe…] Page said hesitantly.

After reading further through the ledger I confirmed what Page had suspected. This wasn’t really all that useful in tracking down the ones behind the banditry. It detailed a smuggling operation within the city itself, supplying certain luxuries and giving an edge to a particular merchant. It seemed to involve one of the councillors, few others could possibly afford the expenses that this would accrue.

I sighed, closing the ledger and shoving it back, my seat rocked backwards from the motion, and I leaned back, balancing myself on the chair’s two legs. None of that was very useful at all was it? I thought. I guess you have to start somewhere. I turned to the shaper, performing the final touches. The elementals disconnected, and I gestured for them to come closer.

It had been a lot of trial and error to see what kinds of commands they responded to, at the very least they seemed to understand simple gestures like follow and come here. Their simplistic approach to it also meant that it was possible, with coaxing, to get them to follow me under the ground. I took a walk into the night, the elementals trailing underfoot.

Much as I trusted Cale, I was almost absolutely certain his friend had chosen people to spy on me, and I was not going to let them see the elementals, lest they wonder at my abilities or my identity. I managed to get to the edge of the forest, dodging in and telling them to disperse. If people were following me, it’d certainly look suspicious, but at least it wouldn’t be indicative of the truth.

There was a knock on the door the next morning, I opened it as I did the last time, seeing the same man as before standing there. “What do you have to report?” He asked, looking over to me with what seemed to be… disdain? Interesting…

I handed him the ledger. “The cipher was quite difficult to crack, but if you have a quill and parchment, or just good memory, I can give you the cipher for it, should shave a bit of time off your schedule.” I said. He looked at it in surprise.

“I hadn’t heard of any commotion or the like from the target. How did you obtain this?” He exclaimed, his voice almost rising to a shout before he composed himself. “How?” He managed to strangle out.

I stared at him for a moment. Did they expect me to… assault the building? I thought incredulously. “I snuck in and stole it.” I replied slowly. “Do you want the cipher or not?”

“I do not think that will be necessary.” The man replied, recomposing himself. “We will… be in touch with another assignment soon…” He continued, turning around to leave.

Without that cipher it might well take weeks for them to break the code, though I guess it’s not exactly credible for me to have broken it so easily. I thought with a shrug. I surveyed my toom, stretching myself out and deciding to take a walk. They certainly don’t seem to need me today.

[Some sun would be good for you.] Page agreed. [At least to keep you from outing yourself as a vampire.] I rolled my eyes.

The city was quite a sight more developed than most of the other nations I’d been in. Benefits of scale I supposed. I stopped by the blacksmith, letting them take a look at my sword as I browsed. “It’s in pretty good shape. Do you use it often?” He asked, eyes sliding from the blade to meet my own. I shrugged.

“Not as often as I used to.” It had been a while since I had flesh and blood foes after all. “Anything you think I might need to do for it?”

“Not as such.” He said, handing the blade back to me. “It’s a fine blade, not much that I can do for it considering it’s pretty much pristine.” I thanked him, taking the blade back and leaving to continue my walk. Eventually winding my way down to the park in the city.